The Analytics Toolbox

Welcome to our Analytics Toolbox -- an area where you can find resources and tools that can help you get as much baseball information as you can possibly handle. If you have any new resources that you'd like to share, please drop us a line on via our Twitter feed.

And, new to this version of the Toolbox, we're trying to add a little context* so you know what you're in for at each of these sites. Let us know what you think.

[ * - We're still in the process of adding that context. Thanks for bearing with.]

Thanks, and happy baseballing!

Data Sources

Baseball-Reference

This is basically the supreme baseball statistics reference available on the internet. More stats can be found here than just about anywhere else. If you need to look up a particular stat, start here.

FanGraphs

FanGraphs is often considered the standard-bearer for advanced statistical analysis, but it's also home to huge amounts of statistical data throughout the history of MLB. Along with Baseball-Reference, one of the indispensable data resources.

Baseball Prospectus

Home to a number of proprietary and non-proprietary stats alike, Baseball Prospectus has loads of items of statistical data available at their site, in addition to analysis, tools and resources.

Retrosheet

Retrosheet is basically an encyclopedia of information on the game of baseball, most notably featuring downloadable information on play-by-play data, game logs, and schedules. Many analysts take Retrosheet's data files and further process them using database applications in order to do wondrous things in baseball analysis.

Lahman's Baseball Database

Another essential tool for those looking to run their own queries using SQL or another methodology, Lahman's database contains a host of useful data points, currently running from 1871 to the 2012 baseball season.

Brooks Baseball

This is the ultimate resource for pitch tracking, built off of the PITCHf/x database. Dan Brooks, Harry Pavlidis, and their team provide information on pitchers through their Player Cards and PITCHf/x tool, which gives detailed information on any pitching performance.

Texas Leaguers F/X

Another phenomenal PITCHf/x resource, Texas Leaguers boasts a searchable database, pitch selection data and spray charts.

Cot's Baseball Contracts

Now hosted at Baseball Prospectus, Cot's Contracts is a site that tracks everything related to MLB player contracts -- from length and dollar amounts to service time and team payrolls. Probably the premier public source for contract info.

MLBfarm

If you're looking for team-by-team breakdowns of what happened in the box score in the minor leagues each day, this is your tool. Developed only recently by Daren Willman, MLBfarm continues to add new functionality and a clean, usable interface.

Baseball Savant

Also created by Daren, Baseball Savant has a number of features -- one of the primary ones is a launch page that gives you team-specific info on the coming day's starting pitchers.

The Hall of Stats

Created by Beyond the Box Score contributor Adam Darowski, the Hall of Stats is a resource that uses data pulled from Baseball-Reference to create a rating of Hall of Fame worthiness for each player in baseball history.

Analysis

Beyond the Box Score

This is us! Plenty of articles on sabermetrics, baseball analytics, and other hardball topics. Kind of known as a breeding ground for up-and-coming sabermetric analysts and baseball writers, powered by the robust and aesthetically-pleasing SB Nation blog network. We'd like to think we're an essential part of the analytics discussion.

FanGraphs

Managing Editor Dave Cameron leads a team of top analysts examining all aspects of baseball from an objective standpoint. FanGraphs is one of, if not the, go-to spots for baseball analysis for the thinking fan. Absolutely essential.

Baseball Prospectus

A long-time standard-bearer for objective analysis in baseball, Baseball Prospectus still provides smart analysis, but now also focuses on scouting, fantasy, and excellent overall baseball writing as well as sabermetrics and research. Much of their analysis requires a subscription to the site. Essential.

The Hardball Times

THT offers a broad spectrum of baseball topics, including sabermetrics, but also covering history, current events, fantasy and more. One of the largest repositories of archived articles over the last decade, there is plenty of information and excellent writing available at this site. Essential.

Tangotiger Blog

Home to sabermetric guru Tom Tango, this blog tends to focus on Tango's thoughts on publicly-published work, as well as occasional musings on other topics. Tom's (and his readers') insights are must-reads. This site also links back to the defunct Inside The Book blog, which served much the same function and was/is a repository of incredibly useful information.